Belleville Craft Brewery to Celebrate New Facility

Grand Opening of 4204 Main Street Brewing Co.’s New Digs

Belleville, IL/March 13, 2017 (STLRestaurant.News) — Belleville’s favorite little craft brewery is about to get a whole lot bigger. 4204 Main Street Brewing Company at 4204 West Main Street has announced the grand opening of their new, larger brewery, canning plant, and tasting room about 1.5 miles up the road from their original location. The new facility at 6435 West Main Street will also include banquet hall seating for more than 500 and a catering kitchen. The grand opening of the new bar and banquet hall will showcase the $3 million renovation of an abandoned store. It will also showcase their newest draft beer, a Vienna lager. The public is invited to have a look, and a taste at 5:00 p.m. Saturday, March 25th.

Back in August 2016 we told you about brewery owners Todd and Julia Kennedy’s plans to open a new canning facility and tasting room in the old Mad Pricer grocery store on West Main Street in Belleville. The Kennedys signed an agreement with developer Adam Hill at that time. Hill had purchased the run down shopping center and secured $2.49 million in tax incentives from the Belleville City Council to help pay for renovations. The Belleville News-Democrat reports that Kennedy and his developers don’t expect to use all of the tax incentive once the project is finished.

Once complete, the new facility will expand 4204’s brewing capacity by more than 1600-percent. Currently, they make about 4,000 barrels of beer each year. That will jump to about 65,000 barrels starting next month. The original brew house at 4204 West Main Street will remain operational, and the restaurant with the great patio will stay open. Their Alton restaurant at 180 E Center Dr will also remain open. The original 4204 West Main brewhouse will become the laboratory for new brews. The plan is to try new things out at the original restaurant, and see how people like them. New beers that become popular at the restaurant will likely become available by can at other sales venues.

Why the drive to put high quality craft beer in a can? The marketing opportunities are obvious: get your beer into more sales outlets (other restaurants, bars and stores), and sell more beer. 4204 brews are currently available in dozens of locations in Missouri and Illinois. Beer makers and distributors like canned beer because cans are lighter and cheaper to ship than bottles. They’re also 100-percent light proof which protects the beer’s flavor (especially important for very hoppy beers, like 4204’s 2 Hop India Pale Ale), and they seal airtight, also ensuring freshness. Cans chill faster than bottles and they’re 100-percent recyclable. That sustainability factor is valued by beer makers and consumers alike.

That same philosophy of sustainability permeates the craft beer industry, and it’s behind the Kennedys’ choice to renovate an existing building rather than constructing an entirely new space. Craft brewers in St. Louis and elsewhere have made it a practice to convert abandoned buildings like the old Mad Pricer store in Belleville into breweries and brewpubs. Todd Kennedy has said that’s part of the ideology behind craft brewing.

If you can’t make Main Street Brewing Co.’s grand opening, you can still get a look at the new facility at the 5th Annual Belleville Ale Fest on Saturday, April 22. They’re hosting it this year at the new 6435 West Main facility. The new digs provide ample space inside and outside, so the festival will go on rain or shine. As in other years, there will be a selection of 4204’s products to sample, as well as beers from around the country, and those of other local craft breweries, along with live music and food vendors. Because it will be at the brand new facilities, this year’s guests will be able to watch the beer brewing in progress.

Susan Smith-Harmon

Susan Smith-Harmon is an experienced writer, editor, and broadcast journalist with a strong news background. She’s worked in radio and television news, and for national and international newswire services.

She began her career in public radio while still a student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (where she earned a B.A. in Communications). She soon made the jump to news/talk radio, handling assignments from field reporting, airborne traffic, and news anchor, to producing and hosting daily talk shows. She’s also worked in television, most recently as the inaugural producer for The Allman Report on KDNL-TV 30, and as a news writer and reporter for national and international newswire services.